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Please, don't try anything that you're about to see us do at home. Ever.

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Oh, learning every minute.

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That you can't make a concrete glider fly.

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This thing was done.

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Who are the Myth Busters?

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Adam Savage.

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Answer all over my head, man.

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And Jamie Heidemann.

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Between them more than 30 years of special effects experience.

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That was heavy.

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Joining them, Grant Imahara.

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Go get him, boy.

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Tori Belachie.

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Somebody order some exploding pants.

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And Carrie Byron.

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They don't just tell the myths.

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They put them to the test.

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So, Grant, you take the train a lot.

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Which is kind of weird because most people drive or take planes.

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I like the train.

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That's cool.

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But, you know, there's this one myth, though, that if you stand too close to a passing train, it can create suction and pull you into the train.

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There is a yellow line to help protect you.

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So maybe that has something to do with it.

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This urban folklore conjures up every commuter's worst nightmare.

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Can the air pressure caused by a fast-moving train actually suck a person right off the platform and onto the rails?

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I have an original idea. Let's start in the small scale.

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Let's go find a model train and build a wind tunnel and do some testing to see if you actually even have any suction.

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The first order of business is to set up a wind tunnel and blow some smoke across a model train.

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So while Grant huffs and puffs putting the wind tunnel together, Tori and Carrie get to go model shopping.

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At San Antonio Hobby, Frank the train man has everything the guys need and he's got some positive news for the myth.

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If you stand too close to a train and it's going fast enough, it can suck you under.

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There's no better way of finding your inner child than stalking the aisles of a hobby store.

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Let go of the trains. Let go of the trains, honey.

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Remember the golden rule. What's that? You never have too many trains.

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Before the guys derail this sequence completely, a timely phone call from station master Grant gets everything back on track.

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Hello. Hey, Grant, what's going on?

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Hey, I've been reading up on the research and I have some new information for you.

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A freight train, it's got a much rougher aerodynamic profile than a passenger train.

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A passenger train is pretty smooth and that can generate a higher slipstream at half the speed of a passenger train.

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So according to Grant, odd shaped freight cars might be the best bet.

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But as the myth is all about an unsuspecting commuter, they take home a passenger train as well.

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Man down. Man down.

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Back at Grant Central Station, our station master is busy making a wind tunnel.

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And using a NASA inspired idea, it's a breeze.

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What they use in regular commercial wind tunnels is a honeycomb.

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It's many densely packed small holes.

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These holes reduce turbulence from the wind source and smooth out the airflow.

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And check out the big brain on Grant because he's found a cut price substitute for high-tech honeycomb.

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Drinking straws, 47,000 of them.

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And with the wind tunnel ready to blow, it's time to get set for the test.

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But what are they looking for?

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There are three areas that we're going to be looking at.

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There's a high pressure zone right in front of the train at the nose,

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the slipstream which is a thin layer of air going over the sides,

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and then right at the back of the train, a low pressure area called the wake.

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Hopefully with this, we'll be able to see smoke swirling around at the back

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which would tell us that it's getting sucked into there.

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So Grant thinks the wake is the key to this myth.

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Could this swirling ultra low pressure vortex, kind of a mini tornado,

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be powerful enough to pull someone off their feet and onto the rail?

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Tori, for this first test, do you want to turn the wind on?

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And Grant, you could be the scout.

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I'll turn on the smoke.

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The team's wind tunnel works a treat, so testing proceeds.

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First, with a passenger car.

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Right there! Little cyclone!

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That's good. See the little vortex.

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And then the odd shaped freight cars, which, like Grant suggested, appear to cause more turbulence.

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We're getting a lot of vortex at the end here.

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It's tough to see it in real time, but the high speed camera confirms

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what our three sets of eagle eyes suspected.

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The small scale trains really do suck.

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You still have a little collection of smoke right behind the train.

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And that's exactly what we're looking for.

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Yeah.

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That's a green light to proceed to the next station.

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And Carrie for one is excited.

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We need full scales, full winds, full sized people getting sucked into the train.

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That's going to be so cool!

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Concrete glider.

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The classic engineering school challenge.

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You can't make a lead balloon.

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You cannot make a glider out of concrete.

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That's it. Somehow we've got to build a glider out of concrete.

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Adam and Jamie are on familiar ground

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when it comes to taking off with crazy contraptions.

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Pile of debaucherd, pile of debaucherd, do you read over?

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The Mythbusters have attempted to get airborne with a jet pack.

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It really is ridiculous.

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Launch Jade the Simulate into the bay with bottle rockets.

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Three, two, one!

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And take Adam on a helium life raft ride.

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Oh, it's very satisfying.

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I shouldn't do that.

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But this time, its mission seemingly impossible.

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Can our intrepid duo conquer the skies with a concrete glider?

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How are we going to get around the fact that concrete, to my knowledge,

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always has rocks and gravel in it that's going to make it really hard to make a glider out of?

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Well, the key component in concrete is Portland cement.

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The gravel and sand and things like that can be substituted for other things

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and some of them are a lot lighter weight.

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So, I mean, we should actually just do a bunch of testing first of all,

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mix up some concrete mixes that use lighter weight aggregates

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and see if we can actually lose a lot of that heavy weight.

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So first off, they're going to learn how to lighten up their heavy weight building material.

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This is a standard concrete mix.

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It's one part cement, two parts sand and three parts gravel.

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In addition to the standard mix, Jamie makes up three more with various lightweight aggregates.

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Beanbag foam beads, pumice,

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and lastly, a material made up of tiny glass beads called micro balloons.

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Now they just have to let it sit.

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And because watching concrete dry ain't exactly Emmy award-winning material,

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let's come back when that's done.

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After the break, Jamie and Adam meet up right spark from NASA

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and he fires them up with some good news.

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I'll bet you can make a concrete glider.

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Fly.

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Concrete.

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With six billion cubic meters made every year,

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it's the most common man-made substance on the planet.

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Buildings, bridges, and freeways are all made of this ubiquitous material.

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But the question is, can you use it to make a glider?

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And will it fly?

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For answers, Adam and Jamie have come to Moffitt Field NASA Ames Research Center

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for a crash course in aerodynamics.

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And glider guru Dr. Steve Smith has some good news.

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I'll bet you can make a concrete glider.

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The whole question is wait.

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So if you build a concrete glider with some reinforcing structure inside

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and a lot of filler so that the concrete plus all the other stuff is still pretty light,

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then of course the speed required to fly to make enough lift to support its weight will come down.

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And you may get down slow into the typical range that modern sailplanes fly.

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Have you ever heard of a glider being made out of concrete?

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So actually, yeah, the Germans experimented with a concrete winged glider in World War II

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to be used as a glide bomb.

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I think it had some kind of a steel core, steel structure inside for structural strength,

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but they basically used concrete as a very cheap, quick way to form a wing shape around it.

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There is definitely a lot of food for thought that we got from Dr. Smith here.

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I thought this was totally ridiculous, and I thought maybe we'd get something that would fall less hard.

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But the information we got here says that we ought to be able to make something that's actually fairly respectable

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as aerodynamic and made out of concrete.

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Back at the shop, and the concrete is ready for the weigh-in.

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And no one is surprised when the standard concrete, the one with the rocks in it,

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is heavier than the alternative aggregate.

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Based on this first test, there's some pretty impressive variances in the weight.

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Everything from foam beads at 68 pounds up to concrete at 115.

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It looks like we'll be able to come up with a mixture that might be light enough.

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The question is, can it stand up to the type of pressures we're going to put it under?

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We're going to have to do some strength testing.

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In other words, they need to beef up their lightweight concrete recipe with some muscle.

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The single biggest problem with the concrete glider is the concrete.

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Concrete has compressive strength, but no tensile strength,

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which means you can put a block of it down on the ground.

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You can sit hundreds of thousands of pounds on that block, and it won't crush.

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But you can make a thin sheet of it, push it through with your finger, and it'll crack.

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So we're going to need to look at ways to strengthen the concrete.

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And one of the ways is with an additive material

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that adds a structure inside the concrete that makes it more flexible

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and more prone to bending without breaking.

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So Adam and Jamie need to know which concrete reinforcers work best in thin slabs.

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And they cast up several, including carbon fiber mesh and pre-stressed cables.

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After leaving them to cure, Jamie is ready to test their tensile strength with his trusty force gauge.

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Okay, so this is cable reinforcement.

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Ooh, very significant.

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We tested four different types of reinforcements.

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Each of those increased the strength to some degree on the concrete samples.

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The standout was the cable reinforcement.

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So Adam and Jamie have some concrete information,

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and they've passed Aerodynamics 101 with flying colors.

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It's time to get started on the build.

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So I don't know if you've heard, but we're going to do this as a build-off.

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I hate build-offs.

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I know you hate the build-offs, but look at it this way.

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While we might be able to make a more successful concrete glider working together,

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working separately, we're going to illustrate two completely different ways of solving the problem

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and cover a lot more ground.

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Whatever.

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Ah, the pointless competition, sold up by fans, so hated by the Mythbusters.

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Adam hates losing, which happens a lot.

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I'm going to kick your goldfish ass.

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And Jamie, well, there's nothing about these head-to-head contests he enjoys, except the cheating.

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Which is why Adam is insisting on guidelines set in, well, set in concrete.

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There must be total secrecy.

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The glider can be built to any scale.

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And the winner will be determined by who achieves the longest relative flight.

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So let's hear from competition scrooge Jamie, who he thinks will win.

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I have no idea who's going to win, and I don't care.

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Bah, humbug.

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Coming up, the train suction story puts Tori in the firing line.

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Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

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And Jamie and Adam continue their crash course in gliding.

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We're back on track with the tall tale that a passing train could make your day really suck.

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The story so far has seen Carrie Grant and Tori testing toy trains in a wind tunnel.

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And the results mean they can move on to the next chapter.

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Well, that was really interesting.

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It looks like we do have some suction.

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The small scale test definitely showed some smoke vortex at the end of the model trains.

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I guess the real question now is, is that enough suction to pull you off into the tracks?

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Well, I mean, now we need to go to full scale, and we still haven't found anybody who's willing to let us use their train.

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So any ideas how we're going to test this one?

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I got an idea.

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I think we should get out the chicken cannon and set that up and choose one of us as a test subject.

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Not it.

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Period, random, not it.

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And then see what effect the increased wind speed has on our bodies.

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So let's dust off the Mythbusters favorite.

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Why do you have the chicken cannon out?

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Because we're going to start shooting each other with it.

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It was first used to test if a stray, high flying bird could crash through an airplane canopy.

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It's a frozen chicken.

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And this is no toy.

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You're watching frozen poultry propelled at 121 miles per hour.

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Wow!

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But on this test, the only chicken inside is nervously shuffling his feet at the business end of the barrel.

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I don't think it's going to push me over, but then I've been wrong before.

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Now remember, they're not just doing this for fun.

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If they can work out what kind of wind speed and air pressure knocks Tori off his feet,

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they'll have some data to crunch when they get to play with a full-sized train.

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We're just going to send Tori just straight into the fence behind us.

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That'd be cool.

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You're the crash-ass dummy after Buster.

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Because he's not as easy to repair as Buster, on their first test, they're starting at just 30 psi.

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And to measure the wind speed, Grant has a handy little device called an anomometer.

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What we're going to do is set Tori up just as if he were standing on a railway platform waiting for a train.

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So in other words, he's not going to be braced and ready to be hit.

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He's just going to be standing on his feet just like anyone would be standing.

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Tori plucks up all his courage, checks the newspaper for great deals on health insurance,

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and tries not to brace for the blast.

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I hear funny noises. It must be the train.

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The 30 psi gust rustles up a wind speed of 24 miles per hour, and Tori is slightly unbalanced.

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Now the guys want to ramp it up and see what it takes to suck you off the platform.

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Adam and Jamie are not only taking on the myth that you can't make a glider out of concrete, they're flying solo.

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So what I'm going to do is buy a model glider kit, and I'm going to add weight to it until it just barely achieves what I need it to achieve.

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And then I will use that kit either as a mold or a guide for creating a concrete airplane.

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Remember the real state they can build on any scale.

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So Jamie goes shopping for a toy glider to use as a mold.

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This type of airplane right here has the most exceptional lift to it, much stronger material.

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Jamie selects two to test with. The first is a stealth bomber model that has excellent lift, but is extremely unstable.

240
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And the second is a U2 spy plane, which with its glider like wings also has great lift, but is less sensitive.

241
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Back at M5 and while Jamie is using pragmatic shortcuts, Adam is taking a more intuitive approach. Basically, he's going to wing it.

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Trying to come up with a visceral understanding of exactly what it takes to make something fly.

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I don't just want to follow someone else's design and then have it screw up on me because while I just followed someone else's design.

244
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Incredibly, Adam's make it up as you go along approach seems to be working.

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That's cool. Right there. That's cool.

246
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I'm going to do some actual like almost kite tests with this just to try and figure out how this kind of size of glider might work.

247
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I'm trying to learn all about everything I need to know within a day.

248
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Okay. Learning every minute.

249
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It's a learning curve of precipitous proportions, but the addition of a tail fin provides some stability.

250
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Addy seems pretty happy.

251
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That's good. That's a good test.

252
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Which means it's time to move on.

253
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I want to do a little more research. I might want to rebuild this thing in wood just to try the design out.

254
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Still not quite as heavy as the concrete.

255
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But if the wood flies, then I don't see any reason why the concrete shouldn't be able to.

256
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Now that looks like a crash and burn.

257
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That was about a one to one glide ratio.

258
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Like it fell about, it looks about 25 feet away.

259
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It's about how high I am.

260
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And that was still a little bit lighter than the concrete will be.

261
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And with take two no better, it looks like it's time for the Mythbuster patented Plan B.

262
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So if I had built a concrete airplane this size, I mean it would be known as a rock.

263
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I'm going to need to scale back. Back. Smaller.

264
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To try and get something successful.

265
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Meanwhile, Jamie has spent an hour rigorously testing his shop bought model gliders.

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Okay, that was a good test.

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And he's pretty sure a hybrid of the stealth bomber wing with the fuselage of the U2 bomber is the best flyer.

268
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Well, it looks like this wing design is the winner.

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Next, Jamie weighs down the model to see what the maximum payload is.

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Well, based on this test, I believe this is about the maximum that I could go.

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I think I should be under this, but definitely no more than this.

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I'm going to go ahead and weigh this now and we'll see what kind of volume of concrete that translates to.

273
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So according to Jamie, if he can make this glider out of concrete and keep it to less than 800 grams,

274
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he might just get this myth off the ground.

275
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Up next, Karrion Grant find another dummy for their train suction tests.

276
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And our concrete aviators get a heavy reality check.

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This thing weighs a ton.

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Hey, don't try what you're about to see at home. We're what you call experts.

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That's right. We do this for a living.

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Millions of us commute by train every day.

281
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So is it possible we're just one step away from disaster?

282
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And if a fast moving train can really suck you off the platform,

283
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the next generation of super trains traveling at 223 miles per hour could be lethal.

284
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Putting his body on the line for the myth, Tari has discovered a blast of air at 30 psi,

285
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which generates a wind speed of 24 miles per hour, won't knock you off your feet.

286
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Oh, nothing. Let's do 100 psi.

287
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Tari, how about 50 psi?

288
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We'll feed you.

289
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Oh dang.

290
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It blew my cover off.

291
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Whoa, that was sweet.

292
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Tari's still standing, but only just.

293
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It didn't knock you over on your butt though.

294
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No, but it definitely knocked me back.

295
00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:03,000
That 50 psi shot of air notched up a wind speed of 46 miles per hour,

296
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and Tari struggled to stay standing.

297
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It looks like the team have their knockout numbers.

298
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So really the indication, if your paper shreds when the train passes,

299
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you're standing too close.

300
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But the big question is yet to be answered.

301
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Can a full scale train generate that kind of wind speed in reverse?

302
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:32,000
Will the wake at the rear of the train suck at 46 miles per hour?

303
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:38,000
Fortunately for Tari, he won't be the one standing on the platform to find out.

304
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That job goes to Buster's Ballistics Gel Brother, Ted.

305
00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:47,000
Our fall guy needs to be as life-like as possible.

306
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That means building a rigid frame to support the legs,

307
00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:54,000
and gel coated ropes to bolster the arms.

308
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This is the ballistic material, and I've coated a piece of rope.

309
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And this is just so that when we pull it out, the arms don't just rip off the body.

310
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Once Ted pulls himself together, he gets filled up from the neck down.

311
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Tari pours in enough Ballistics Gel to fatten up our mannequin to a healthy 200 pounds.

312
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Big enough to prove almost anyone could be sucked off a railway platform to a grisly death.

313
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Yeah, that's kind of weird-looking, huh?

314
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:28,000
The way in confirms he's in fighting shape.

315
00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:31,000
207 pounds, he's a big boy.

316
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:32,000
It's all muscle.

317
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:33,000
Yeah.

318
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:34,000
Okay.

319
00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:37,000
Now all Ted needs is to get ahead.

320
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:47,000
Modern gliders or sail planes make it look so easy.

321
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:55,000
Their state-of-the-art designs and space-age materials contribute to incredible glide ratios of over 40 to 1.

322
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That's 40 miles of travel to one mile of vertical drop.

323
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:08,000
Adam and Jamie have got the tough job of trying to recreate that effortless flight with a glider made of concrete.

324
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:11,000
So far, Jamie's having some success.

325
00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:20,000
He's made a mold from his toy glider and carefully mixed cement, sand, fiberglass, and water into paper-thin wing sections.

326
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:25,000
And the fresh concrete mix is almost ready for curing.

327
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:27,000
Jamie may be up, up and away.

328
00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,000
I don't know how to build airplanes.

329
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:31,000
But Adam is still grounded.

330
00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:42,000
So I looked into the origins of the glider and I come across Kaley and his proto-original coachman carrying glider.

331
00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:46,000
Kaley was an amazing aeronautical experimentalist.

332
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:54,000
He died, I think, in the mid-1850s, years before the Wright Brothers' first flight with a powered airplane.

333
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:56,000
So Adam finally has a design.

334
00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:58,000
Now he's got some catching up to do.

335
00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:05,000
Well, now I've got to draw out the pattern on this foam and then I've got to start sanding and sculpting it.

336
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:10,000
With the mold ready to go, Adam lays out carbon fiber mesh for strength.

337
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:16,000
And then he casts his lightweight concrete mix onto the foam mold.

338
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:21,000
And like Jamie, it's just a question of getting his concrete glider to cure.

339
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:25,000
But this being Mythbusters, time is of the essence.

340
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:35,000
I am prepping my mold to hopefully set faster than 28 days, which is the recommended setting time for this concrete.

341
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:42,000
Keeping the concrete moist in a warm environment is as much as they can do to encourage the curing process.

342
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:48,000
Concrete sets in hours, but curing is a chemical process that takes weeks.

343
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:53,000
Jamie is first to find out if their accelerated curing technique has worked.

344
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:56,000
That's got to be about the thinnest piece of concrete you ever saw.

345
00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:05,000
So far, so good. But as he assembles the wing sections, Jamie finds he has a weightier problem than the curing process.

346
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:09,000
His maximum weight of 800 grams has been busted.

347
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:20,000
Right now it weighs about 1300 grams, which is about twice what it needs to weigh for it to be in the worst case scenario where it just barely is flying.

348
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:27,000
This was originally just the bottom section, not a very structural part of the original wing.

349
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:32,000
But seeing as how it was so overweight, now this becomes the actual wing itself.

350
00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:36,000
By putting a little bend in it, I think we'll get to the same place.

351
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:41,000
With the weight problem taken care of, assembly begins.

352
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:47,000
With Jamie on the runway and ready for takeoff, let's find out how his wingman Adam is doing.

353
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:50,000
That's good. I've got some hopes for this.

354
00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:54,000
With the Cayley glider set, it's time to release it from the mold.

355
00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:59,000
And using an old model maker's trick, Adam dissolves the foam with acetone.

356
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:02,000
But now he's got an issue with excess baggage.

357
00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:04,000
This thing weighs a ton.

358
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:10,000
I don't have a target weight. Just super crazy light was what I was hoping for.

359
00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:17,000
I got a bit of work pulling out as much weight as I can.

360
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:25,000
So to get the Cayley glider down to a reasonable flying weight, Adam and his angle grinder have got a long day ahead.

361
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:30,000
After the break, find out if Ted takes a tumble onto the train tracks.

362
00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:32,000
That was awesome!

363
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:36,000
Then Adam and Jamie square up for a showdown.

364
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:39,000
This thing is going to drop like a stone when he lets it go.

365
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:47,000
Our team of train spotters have tested toy trains for turbulence.

366
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:53,000
They've toppled Torrey with a tug of war and turned him into chicken cannon fodder.

367
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:58,000
It's time to take this test to the full scale.

368
00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:03,000
After months of searching, our researchers have found a railroad in Albuquerque, New Mexico

369
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:06,000
that's willing to give it up for science.

370
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:13,000
I was very pessimistic about this myth until I saw the size of this train. It's huge.

371
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:16,000
I can't believe anybody's going to give us something this big to play with.

372
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:19,000
I could see this actually being true.

373
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:24,000
If Ted could speak, he'd probably be screaming, why me?

374
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:28,000
But Misery truly does love company and he won't be alone out there.

375
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:30,000
Something else we'd like to try today.

376
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:32,000
We brought a baby stroller with us.

377
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It's not part of the myth, but train-travelling parents often have their stroller with them.

378
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:43,000
And because it's on wheels, the guys think it will help illustrate the suction effect.

379
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:50,000
The stroller may get pulled off the platform, even if Ted and his 200 pounds are unmoved.

380
00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:53,000
Now his back wants to be to the train. It's like he's got a headphone on.

381
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,000
He's listening to music. He doesn't know the train's coming. Okay.

382
00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:59,000
The expression of the train is a little bit different.

383
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:01,000
He doesn't know the train's coming. Okay.

384
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:05,000
The expression says it all. Ted ain't exactly confident,

385
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:08,000
but Tari thinks his chances of survival are good.

386
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:12,000
My feeling is the train is going to go through. There's probably going to be a lot of rumbling.

387
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:18,000
It might knock the dummy over, but I don't think the suction is actually going to be strong enough to pull the dummy in.

388
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:25,000
The last thing to do before the potentially lethal drive-by is to set up Grant's wind speed gauges.

389
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:29,000
With that done, it's time to set this test in motion.

390
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:33,000
Three miles away, Robert set his train a rolling,

391
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:38,000
slowly building up to the legal speed limit of 79 miles per hour.

392
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:40,000
Should be here any second.

393
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:46,000
Music

394
00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:54,000
Music

395
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:57,000
That was awesome!

396
00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:02,000
That was intense. Ted's been tipped sideways, and the strollers snapped its line.

397
00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:05,000
In fact, it's taken out a camera.

398
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:11,000
So the stroller, the line snapped. It got pushed so hard.

399
00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:13,000
Are you serious? That way.

400
00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:15,000
Oh, jeez.

401
00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:20,000
So any mom that has her stroller that close to the train?

402
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:24,000
Was it suction or was it more just the gust of air that pushed him over?

403
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:28,000
With so much happening so quickly, it's difficult to tell what's going on,

404
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:33,000
but the replay seems to indicate the stroller being blown along the platform.

405
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:37,000
And there's no sign of Ted getting sucked onto the tracks.

406
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:41,000
Music

407
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:48,000
The myth of the concrete glider has brought Adam and Jamie head-to-head in an aviation dogfight.

408
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:52,000
And to find out who's going to be top gun and who's going to be the goose,

409
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:56,000
it's time to get a visual on the enemy bogey.

410
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:58,000
Ta-da!

411
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:02,000
Well, it looks like something right out of Leonardo's day.

412
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:05,000
It's actually modeled on Caylee's glider.

413
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:10,000
It is, in fact, his most successful glider that carried a person,

414
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:13,000
and it weighs a bloody ton.

415
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:16,000
Music

416
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:19,000
Yup, his thing is going to drop like a stone when he lets it go.

417
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:24,000
I mean, you can see by the shape, it's not got very much lift involved.

418
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:29,000
You know, I'm guessing that it barely has any more lift than mine does.

419
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:34,000
But yet it weighs several times as much, so I don't have a whole lot of hopes for it.

420
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:37,000
Let's see your fragile, wilting bird of a plane.

421
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:38,000
Okay.

422
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:40,000
It looks like a glider.

423
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:44,000
I did testing on something that was a foam version of this.

424
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:45,000
Yeah.

425
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:51,000
And this is under the weight that I tested and still considered it to sail.

426
00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:52,000
And the weigh-in...

427
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:55,000
In this corner, weighing in it.

428
00:31:55,000 --> 00:31:58,000
The scales confirm Adam's worst fears.

429
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:03,000
At just over 600 grams, Jamie's wilting bird is a featherweight.

430
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:05,000
This is basically concrete with a few pieces of string,

431
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:10,000
and I think it's a fantastic attempt at foiling the myth

432
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:13,000
that you can't make a glider out of concrete.

433
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:17,000
Adam is next, and with over two kilos of Caylee glider,

434
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:19,000
he's definitely in the heavyweight division.

435
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:24,000
So with a heavy heart and glider, Adam has defeat firmly in his grasp.

436
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:27,000
Let's set up a wind tunnel test so we can figure out how many different ways

437
00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:30,000
you've probably beaten me in this contest.

438
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:31,000
Okay.

439
00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:38,000
Using Grant's drinking straw technique, Adam breezily whips up a wind tunnel.

440
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:41,000
With the makeshift wind tunnel up and running,

441
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:45,000
Adam and Jamie can measure their gliders lift-to-weight ratio.

442
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:49,000
They'll do this by weighing the glider in front of the fan.

443
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:54,000
Any lift their glider achieves will result in a weight reduction.

444
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:59,000
Yeah, I'm seeing, on average, probably about, yeah,

445
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:02,000
just about a max of 200 grams of lift there.

446
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:09,000
By my best guess, my glider was receiving about 38% of its total weight in lift.

447
00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:14,000
38% is impressive, with a decent launch speed that will increase,

448
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:16,000
and it may just be enough.

449
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:20,000
Next up is Adam's Kaylee glider.

450
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:24,000
Well, it's nice that I can feel some lift, but this thing is heavy.

451
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:27,000
His lift-to-weight ratio is well down on Jamie's.

452
00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:30,000
It's only generating half as much lift.

453
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:33,000
Yeah, it spikes up to 350.

454
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:37,000
My glider did not seem to perform as well as Jamie's.

455
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:38,000
Actually, about half as well.

456
00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:42,000
At this stage, Adam is thinking his heavyweight contender

457
00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:46,000
won't stand a chance against Jamie's featherweight champion.

458
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:49,000
But with both fighters ready to rumble,

459
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:52,000
it's time to pack up and head back to NASA

460
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:55,000
to let these concrete creations fly.

461
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:59,000
Next, stand by for some more train track turbulence.

462
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:04,000
And Jamie and Adam are all set up for countdown.

463
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:06,000
Oh, buddy.

464
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:18,000
Carrie, Grant, Tori, and Ted have survived a train track flyby

465
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:22,000
with no sign of the mythical suction on the first run.

466
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:24,000
It's take two.

467
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:28,000
But this time, the train will be going backwards

468
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:32,000
with the blunt end leading and the aerodynamic engine at the rear.

469
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:39,000
Yeah!

470
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:41,000
Dang!

471
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:43,000
Dude, look at the stroller.

472
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:44,000
Oh, my God!

473
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:45,000
Look at the stroller.

474
00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:48,000
He got thrown off the platform.

475
00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:49,000
What?!

476
00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:52,000
Incredibly, Ted is still standing.

477
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:54,000
He wasn't even blown back.

478
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:58,000
But Grant's battery of wind gauges has its own tale to tell.

479
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:02,000
On our first run with the train coming this way

480
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:05,000
and the aerodynamic tip leading,

481
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:10,000
we had parallel to the train wind speed of 49.9.

482
00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:14,000
The second run with the flat end leading coming this way,

483
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:18,000
we had on this one 26.8.

484
00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:21,000
So the wind speed on that run was actually less.

485
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:25,000
So according to the figures from the chicken cannon tests,

486
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:29,000
both runs generated enough wind to make a typical guy stumble.

487
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:34,000
But it's all blowing straight out or parallel to the track.

488
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:37,000
It looks like the turbulence moving with the train

489
00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:41,000
and away from the track trumps any wake effect there may be

490
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:43,000
following the train.

491
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:47,000
Once again, Robert the driver winds his engine up to full speed.

492
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:55,000
Ted finds himself face down on the platform

493
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:57,000
and the stroller's missing in action.

494
00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:01,000
So no one was sucked onto the train tracks for a dice with death.

495
00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:04,000
And with no obvious results, it's back to the shop

496
00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:08,000
to study the high speed camera and piece together the data.

497
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:11,000
Looks like all the wind is running parallel to the train.

498
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:14,000
Yeah, I'm definitely not seeing any suction.

499
00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:17,000
The first and third runs had the most violent effects,

500
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:20,000
but there was no sign of any suction.

501
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:23,000
The winds blasting outwards and sideways

502
00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:28,000
were far stronger than any vortex that may have been created behind.

503
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:30,000
If Ted had felt any suction,

504
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:33,000
that tie rope would be as taut as fencing wire.

505
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:36,000
So what do we come to for conclusion for train section?

506
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:38,000
Oh, it's busted. Totally busted.

507
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:40,000
But still really, really dangerous to stand that close.

508
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:42,000
You don't want to stand very close to the train.

509
00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:44,000
You do not want to be there.

510
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:46,000
It's your psycho.

511
00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:54,000
Ow!

512
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:56,000
Well, Adam, what are you doing?

513
00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:58,000
It's time to test these things.

514
00:36:58,000 --> 00:36:59,000
Are you ready?

515
00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:00,000
Ready as I'll ever be.

516
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:01,000
Me too.

517
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:03,000
Okay, let's go.

518
00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:07,000
It's launch day and in search of perfect test conditions,

519
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:12,000
our pioneering pilots touch down back at the NASA Ames Research Center.

520
00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:14,000
We're back at Muffin Fields,

521
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:16,000
hanging number two where we shot helium football

522
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:19,000
and it's ideal for the concrete glider tests

523
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:21,000
for the same reasons it was ideal for helium football.

524
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:25,000
We can close the doors of this huge space and eliminate any wind.

525
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:29,000
Dr. Steve Smith, MythBusters font of all flying facts,

526
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:34,000
is there to check out the designs and offer some last-minute advice.

527
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:37,000
A crucial question on this one is going to be where the center of gravity is

528
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:38,000
so that it trims.

529
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:40,000
Well, where should it be?

530
00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:43,000
Somewhere between 25 and 30% of the length, maybe.

531
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:45,000
About right here.

532
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:48,000
Next, Jamie presents his featherweight wilting bird.

533
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:52,000
But does Dr. Smith think it'll fly more like a paperweight?

534
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:54,000
Yeah, that's impressive. That's beautiful.

535
00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:57,000
Cables stay bracing and everything. Look at that.

536
00:37:57,000 --> 00:37:59,000
It's paper.

537
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:01,000
Wow.

538
00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:07,000
Dr. Smith's upbeat reaction to their designs has fueled their enthusiasm.

539
00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:13,000
But his advice means Adam and Jamie have some tweaking, trimming and testing to do.

540
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:17,000
To get the balance right, Adam is stealing another of George Cayley's

541
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:19,000
desired ideas and adding a gondola.

542
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:23,000
The weight beneath the wing can be adjusted to move the center of gravity.

543
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:27,000
Plus, it should stabilize the glider in flight.

544
00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:33,000
Jamie has also been busy shifting his glider's center of gravity further forward.

545
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:36,000
It looks stupid, but we don't care about that right now.

546
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:38,000
It's a concrete airplane. What are you going to do?

547
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:43,000
It may have been called big nose at glider school, but it's ready to fly.

548
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:48,000
And while Jamie has been picking his glider's nose, Adam's been getting some launch advice.

549
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:52,000
I figured out, with Dr. Smith's help, actually, Dr. Smith figured out

550
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:55,000
with my help. And by help, I mean I supplied him with measurements.

551
00:38:55,000 --> 00:39:02,000
He was able to calculate that it should fly at around 20 to 22 miles per hour,

552
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:08,000
about 30 feet per second, if it is to hit its ideal speed to glide ratio.

553
00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:13,000
And because his throwing arm won't manage two miles an hour, never mind 22,

554
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:19,000
he's got a cutting plan. He's going to use a zipline, tow line and quick release.

555
00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:26,000
That mark is where the pin gets pulled out and my glider starts flying on its own.

556
00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:31,000
Adam then optimistically marks out a target distance of 50 feet.

557
00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:33,000
That's how far I want to travel.

558
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:35,000
Now, I'm about to let go of this. You got the hook?

559
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:36,000
Yep.

560
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:38,000
Oh, buddy.

561
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:39,000
Okay.

562
00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:41,000
Everything's in place. I'm going to go down there and grab the tow line.

563
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:45,000
Last call for the departure of Concrete Airways, flight 101.

564
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:49,000
Three, two, one, go.

565
00:39:55,000 --> 00:40:01,000
Well, the launch was successful and Adam's Cayley glider has survived relatively intact.

566
00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:03,000
But how far did it glide?

567
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:07,000
Well, let's see where I... Oh, there's my 50 foot mark, 55 feet.

568
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:09,000
So I didn't make that.

569
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:14,000
Looks kind of like I hit maybe at like 20 feet.

570
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:22,000
So I didn't get my... I didn't get my glide ratio I was hoping for.

571
00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:24,000
But hold on. There's a catch.

572
00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:30,000
Adam thinks his glider released from the zipline and began flying on its own at a height of 20 feet

573
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:33,000
before gliding a distance of 20 feet.

574
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:35,000
But there's been a recount.

575
00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:43,000
My glider released from its catch off of its guideline at about nine feet off the ground.

576
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:50,000
It then flew close to 34 feet before hitting the ground.

577
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:53,000
Now four times nine is 36.

578
00:40:53,000 --> 00:41:00,000
So 34 feet means I came devilishly close to a four to one glide ratio.

579
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:05,000
I'm stunned actually. I could not be more pleased with these results.

580
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:12,000
I know I was shooting for 55 feet, but really I was hoping for anything over a solid drop

581
00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:14,000
into the ground.

582
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:18,000
Incredibly, Adam has gone from underdog to top cat.

583
00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:24,000
Jamie steps up to the plate, but he's stubbornly sticking to a manual launch from the stairwell,

584
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:27,000
despite Adam's successful flight.

585
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:32,000
I don't want to screw around and, you know, get some kind of, you know, line, zipline going

586
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:35,000
and all this kind of stuff. I'm just going to throw it and see what it does.

587
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:42,000
Okay. In three, two, one.

588
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:48,000
Well, there you go.

589
00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:52,000
Jamie's wilting bird took flight and then took a nose dive.

590
00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:58,000
In other words, his concrete glider was all concrete and no glide.

591
00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:00,000
Congratulations, you won.

592
00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:06,000
I'm going to enjoy this for the short while that it lasts.

593
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:13,000
Jamie's one to one glide ratio was not even close to matching Adam's soaring achievement of four to one.

594
00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:17,000
And, you know, it's possible Adam will let Jamie forget about this.

595
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:23,000
It's not really about who wins or loses. It's really just about illustrating the concept.

596
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:26,000
But I won.

597
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:31,000
But unlikely. All gloating aside, what about the myth?

598
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:36,000
Did the guys prove anything about the concept of a concrete glider?

599
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:41,000
Aerodynamics of planes don't scale up very easily from small to human size.

600
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:51,000
But that being said, I think there is actually a tiny chance that one could build a human-sized concrete glider.

601
00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:55,000
I'm not sure that I would get into it, but it's certainly give Buster a ride.

602
00:42:55,000 --> 00:43:03,000
Well, Adam, I don't think either of us were really that happy with the gliders, but we did prove that it can be done.

603
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:07,000
I'd call it plausible, but not recommended.

604
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:12,000
Yeah, you know, the big thing for me is that you only got one shot at it.

605
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:15,000
You know, it's brittle if you crash with the things, it's over.

606
00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:22,000
But, you know, I think we also proved that if you really think through your launch and you do it correctly, that you can actually get some gliding done.

607
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:25,000
We're strutting a little bit, are we?

608
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:26,000
Sure.

609
00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:27,000
Okay, well.

610
00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:29,000
I'll enjoy it while I can.

611
00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:30,000
So we're plausible.

612
00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:31,000
Plausible.

613
00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:32,000
But not recommended.

614
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:33,000
Exactly.